Just about every middle-handicapper I play with in a pro-am is trying really hard to erase that left-to-right shot. I don’t blame them. Who wants to hit a slice? My normal shot is a draw, which to me looks like a straight shot that just moves a little left at the end. A right-to-left shot really suits my eye, and I struggle when I have to make the ball work the other way. That means the advice I give every amateur on the second tee is pretty close to what I do myself.
With a few of my adjustments, you also can eliminate slices and start hitting draws. How fast? Faster than it takes to find that banana ball you parked in the trees on the right. Here’s how.
It Starts With Your Hands
A lot of amateurs know to set their hands on the club in a stronger position to hit a draw. These photos show the difference between a stronger grip [top left] and a weaker one [middle left]. But grabbing the club in a stronger position isn’t the only thing you need to do. Set the grip in the base of your fingers [bottom left], not angled across your palm. If it’s more in the fingers, you’ll be able to swing freely and easily close the clubface in relation to your swing path. That’s what you need to do to hit a draw.
Clear A Path
With the right backswing, you can almost automatically hit a draw without doing anything else. Look at my clubface here [below]. It’s skywards, in a very closed position. Slicers usually have the face looking down at this point. I’ve also pivoted deep into my right hip. My arms are far behind me, too. Slicers tend to have the club in front of their body at this point, because they either hang on their front foot or sway laterally from the target without a lot of chest rotation. If you take the club back while pivoting around your trail hip, you’ll create the room you need to swing the club down on a draw path from inside the target line.
Finish What You Started
The way your swing ends probably looks different than how the players on TV finish. But if you want to draw it, end up on the toes of your trail foot – proof you didn’t hang back or let your body rotation stall too early. You want to finish with your chest facing the target. Also feel like your arms just swung around your body, and the club didn’t stop moving until it lost all its momentum. Remember what I said about gripping it more in the fingers? That’ll help you make a completely unrestricted swing, because a draw needs your full commitment.
Kevin Kisner is a two-time winner on the US PGA Tour and was a member of the 2017 US Presidents Cup team. Last year he finished in the top 20 in driving accuracy and earnings and tied for third at the Tour Championship.
